Can Microsoft Hurt Google?

I would launch another lamentation about Hurricane Rita, but news that it has degraded into a Category 4 has somewhat assuaged me. I have more hope that it'll weaken before it hits Houston and my family will survive after all, but I suppose we'll have to wait and see. I also hope that it isn't too hard to make it to ACL. Oh, and I think I'm getting sick but I can't figure out whether it's a fever or just exhaustion. So I wanted to briefly cover the topic of Microsoft's bid for AOL, which some analysts believe could really hurt Google should Microsoft outsmart Google in switching AOL's search engine of choice to MSN Search. I don't think this would hurt the search giant much even if it did come to pass, but at least it would give Microsoft some muscle in dealing with them. M$ is actually coming to UT next Monday, but I think I've decided to not apply there this year. Let's see what I can get out there from other companies and see how I like not being part of the largest software company in the world. After all, in a big company it's too easy to get lost in the crowd and overlooked for your accomplishments.

I know you're tired of hearing about Google, but there are two other articles of interest dealing with them. The first is word that they're looking to hire a full-time project manager for GoogleTV, and from the job requirements it almost sounds like they're trying to compete with Tivo. Remember, Tivo is the one that is currently experiencing backlash from customers for selling out. The other thing with Google is trying to put together crowd wisdom to make predictions on things, and it's clearly the work of a group of geeks who get really excited about math and statistics. Meanwhile, Sony is slated to cut 10,000 jobs and write off this year as a loss, which can't be putting confidence in those anticipating the PS3. My excitement is still unfaltering though due to the MGS4 trailer. Lastly, if you've ever heard of Ajax and wanted to learn more about what it's all about, then click here.

It's not that I think that the Dead or Alive film adaptation will be good, but it's just because I like Devon Aoki for some reason that I showcase this picture from the set of the movie. It should come as no surprise that there are already talks regarding a sequel to Wedding Crashers. There's no plot details yet, but everyone sounds fired up to get on board again. The Simpsons movie will have a more refined look for the movie, which could either be very good or very bad depending on what they do with it exactly. Lastly, if you're interested in a Meet the Parents-esque movies, you should check out the trailer for The Family Stone. It has a rather controversial poster to boot.

Now for the Thursday Threesome:

Onesome - Gunning - What is it that you have been gunning for lately?
I've been gunning for my family to stay alive and for my house to remain in one piece! I would like to get through this weekend though, ACL and homework and all as well.

Twosome - Down - What brings you down?
Well the threat of being sick does. Also, getting in fights with close friends or family. And another thing is the lives of my loved ones being threatened.

Threesome - Romance - What's the most romantic movie scene you can recall? Are there any scenes that get your heart-a-fluttering?
I'd be inclined to say True Romance, but I've probably seen something more romantic. I don't see whole lot of romance movies though so I couldn't really give you a good one off the top of my head.

Heaven Help Us

I don't think I've ever been so afraid for the lives of my family (including relatives), and I don't know what I can do about it. When I was little I always feared the word "hurricane" on the news and I heard warnings about counties nearby, but they never hit us. I always thought they would be worse than they were, and thankfully we just always managed to miss it though Houston was vulnerable to hurricanes. I guess it's this false security that has caused me to enter shock today as millions of Houstonians evacuate the largest city in Texas and one of the largest in the nation. I can't help but praise the Lord that I came to UT for college and because of that I'm safe from harm's way. I can sit here and pray, but how will that help anything? He has made his decision, and we can't stop an act of God. My room mate's family is headed here so we'll provide shelter for at least 3 refugees, and I'm frantically trying to get a hold of my family members to see what they're doing. My parents are heading to Louisiana to stay with an Aunt's family and my brother is also headed there to stay with his girlfriend's sister, much of my mom's side of the family is going to San Antonio, and the two families on my dad's side currently have no plans to leave. Isn't that fucking scary? I don't want to say it to them, but what if I'll never see them again because they just stay at home through the storm? Less importantly but also a concern is the fact that I have one foot in Houston and one foot in Austin so I have many possessions at my parent's home. What's worse is that all their stuff is there, and even worse is that my brother just bought a house in Jersey Village he was going to move into next month. Uncertainty and fear have now filled my mind amidst all the stress of school work and NSC, but I'll try to briefly finish this post nonetheless.

Going with the disaster theme today, the Wall Street Journal has an article about new innovations in disaster relief technology including crank radios and disposable CellBoosts (cell phone batteries). It was actually written in response to Katrina, but it looks like it may apply to us very soon. I find some consolation in knowing that we're at least getting better prepared than the poor people in New Orleans were. Another big thing today was actually that the Authors Guild is slapping a lawsuit on Google, and they gave a response soon afterwards claiming that they're not actually allowing whole pieces of copyrighted content to be downloaded. Should be an interesting battle. Lastly, Mozilla fought off attacks themselves claiming that they have better security response than IE, and so far I think they're right.



I've got to admit that the new, international poster for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire looks pretty good. They even have a new tv spot to boot. There's also a new Saw II poster if you're interested. Quentin Tarantino has let out the titles of the two films that will be a part of Grind House: his is Death Proof and Robert Rodriguez's is Planet Terror. I wonder if I can ask Rodriguez for more details next Wednesday. Her hotness, Jessica Alba, has decided that her first priorities for films will be Sin City and Fantastic Four sequels should they be offered to her, and the former is almost certain. I don't know why she'd want a sequel for the other. Lastly, there are a few random X3 casting details for those of you who still care.

Now for the glorious return of the Wednesday Mind Hump:

01. If you were one of board games sold in stores (past or present), which one would you be and why?
I would be Othello (or Reversi) because it's simple and complicated at the same time. It's just a fun game in general and I rarely get tired of it.

02. Ever played Monopoly? If so, do you have a favorite property, block of properties and which token is your favorite? For your convenience -- a list of tokens (old & new): iron, purse, lantern, race car, cannon, boat, thimble, shoe, top hat, rocking horse, dog, wheelbarrow, horse and rider, sack of money.
My favorite token is actually the sack of money, but I also like the top hat. My favorite properties are the utilities, the railroads, and the purple real estate because they're like the forgotten gold mines.

03. Create-A-Board-Game: Create a board game based on your life. Describe it. Here's some features you might describe. What would it be called. What might some of the playing pieces be? What would be the object of the game?
It would have to be timed or something to create the illusion of stress. It would simply be called "Elton" and the object would be to advance towards a neverending series of goals thru a neverending amount of work. Not the best game ever I'll admit, but there are some good spots to it, don't worry.

Please continue to pray for the people trying to leave Houston and its surrounding areas that they manage to escape the path of the hurricane safely.

A Conversation with His Holiness

"If you find what I have said today interesting then go home and think more on it. Otherwise, just forget it." - Tenzin Gyatso

I don't think any of us knew really what to expect out of it, but it was still surreal to see the 13th Dalai Lama place a scarf around President Faulkner, who gave the introduction, only several hundred feet in front of my eyes. What was neat about his whole lecture was that he was totally calm, cool, and casual the whole time despite having an audience of over 8,000 people. In fact, he even stated in the beginning that sitting in front of us would be just like having a conversation with someone. Indeed, he was right as his whole talk was a smorgasboard of random ideas centered around human emotion and compassion, which is only fitting given that he's the reincarnation of the Buddha of Compassion. He sat Indian-style on a big, cushioned chair alongside a member of his entourage to aid sometimes in translation with two microphones pointed directly at him at a big screen overhead showing his face. There was so much light on him, in fact, that he put on a red cap so that he could see the audience! Aside from the cap, he looks exactly like he does in the picture I have here that was printed on our ticket. I had forgotten my ticket actually and had to go home to get it (luckily my morning class was EE 316, which is self-paced) as soon as I reached campus in the morning, and I made it to the Erwin Center a little over an hour before doors opened. A few hundred other people gathered at our side of the Center alone (there are gates all around it) as it grew nearer to 2:00 PM, but the line was pretty poorly organized until about 1:30 PM. I hate the Erwin Center management because they even outlaw outside food and drink so they can sell it to you at disgustingly high prices.

Anyway, we managed to get seats on the main floor itself and by 4:00 PM the whole main floor was filled, as well as the lower level auditorium seats and probably nearly half of the mezzanine level seats. Crazy, huh? The Lama even expressed that he was just people like us and really didn't have anything special to share, but he would tell of his experiences. He spoke English as an Indian would, and the other language he spoke was some hybrid of Hindi and Chinese (understandable given his refugee status). Much as you couldn't explain everything that happened to you in the past month in order I cannot accurately relate the lecture because it was a random mesh of ideas about the good of emotions like affection and compassion as opposed to negative emotions like anger and fear. He emphasized that you needed peace of mind to guard yourself against being too swayed by crises and tragedies that occur in our lives and that inner peace also leads to more confidence and a happier life. Happiness requires affection though, and he noted that a lot of kids who grew up without enough affection (divorced or abusive parents) have problems when they grow up because of how necessary it is. As he would say, the whole point of life is to pursue happiness, and more importantly it's best if humanity is happy as a whole. He also spent some time to address the issues of global violence, but given his peaceful disposition you can guess at what he said.

It was kind of neat to laugh at jokes from a 70-year-old monk, and it was definitely inspiring to ponder the stuff he says as it puts a whole different perspective at life. We should really be seeking what's best for the general good, not just for ourselves. I'm sure that many people left disappointed, but in all fairness some people hyped it up to be more than it was. It's just a lecture from a very prominent person in the world. I felt it as fulfilling as reading Herman Hesse's Siddartha, and I think I'll try not to "forget it." As you can tell, I personally enjoyed it and despite being as tired as I was (several reasons, long story) I was hooked to the whole thing. It's crazy for a man so important to be so humble even admitting when asked what our government should do about the Iraq world that it was beyond his wisdom. The best part is how secular the whole thing was and it really shows that despite what denomination we associate ourselves with we should all be seeking the same ideals and following the same ethics. I think I've spoken enough about it, but comment if you have questions I didn't answer.

Given how much I splurged on the Dalai Lama, I'll keep the tech news very very brief. My alternate theme for today would've been more about the music industry. Steve Jobs has announced that he's staying firm on his iTunes pricing despite pressures from the industry citing that they're greedy. He's right, too, and he's even stating that there won't be any evolutions to the iPod in the near future (such as Bluetooth or Video) as had been hoped, which is understandable given the leap with the Nano. The RIAA is really pushing it by clamoring for copy protected digital radio, which is ridiculous given that analog radio never required this. Lastly, I find it really cool that there's a guy making a board game to help encourage kids towards Computer Science with boolean algebra. The game isn't as boring as it would sound, so give it a quick read-through.

There are only two movie items of interest. There's a pretty sweet new trailer for Saw II up showing promise for the quickly produced sequel. I personally thought the original was a neat horror movie. The other thing is that Rosario Dawson joined the cast of Clerks 2, which is notable because I like Kevin Smith's movies and she's hot. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask you all to pray for my hometown, Houston. Hurricane Rita is giving it the evil eye and though I may not like the city all my stuff is there and a lot of my family is, too.

Now for the Ten on Tuesday:

10 Ways Your Country Can Change for the Better (the U.S. of A.)
10. Better disaster relief programs.
9. More information available to voters about who they vote for.
8. Better laid out voter registration system (i.e. easier to do).
7. More promotion of free trade.
6. Lower national debt.
5. Congressmen who actually work for their constituencies.
4. Better management at the INS.
3. Less coverups and feeding nonsense to the public.
2. Separation of church and state.
1. A smarter president with a better cabinet.

The Fruits of Illegal File Sharing

Needless to say, P2P has taken a beating in recent years from the music industry, but some good as actually come out of it. A company called BigChampagne has started a service that analyzes data from the various networks to tell record companies about trends in their artists. This will give them more insight into what's a one-hit wonder or what songs should be made singles and such. It's a pretty smart idea and they're even starting to ally with sites like Yahoo! Music. Meanwhile, a company called Mashboxxx is trying to establish a service that allows you to sample music before you download it, and they're looking for fallen illegal download services as partners. The only problem that has come up more recently is copy protection on CDs that prevent the songs to be ripped to even an mp3 player. Some bands, like Switchfoot, are actually advocating techniques to circumvent the technology so that fans can rip the music. I admire them more for doing that because it shows faith in their fanbase.

I think the neatest bit of technology news today is a camera phone being developed by NEC that would allow you to scan documents right into your cell phone with a 1MP camera and some OCR software on board. It'll be a while yet before it's sold in stores because they have to deal with copyright protection issues, but if they actually figure out a way to protect the scanned text I think it would be really cool and I could've even used it today when my mom wanted a recipe that I had in my recipe book (weird, huh?). An even bigger issue to me is that Georgia Tech has developed a device that can detect cameras in front of it and block any pictures that it takes. It'll be great for secret products, but couldn't it lead to more privacy violations? Symantec seems to believe that Firefox and Mac OS X are becoming less and less secure than people previously thought as their popularity rises, and though there's no concrete evidence for the latter there have been more cross-site scripting attacks that hurt Mozilla based browsers. So much for the honeymoon! Lastly, if you're looking to waste time check out Millions of Games.

There's very little movie news today, so this will go quick. If you were hoping that Hugh Jackman would be the next Bond then I'm sorry to say that he has personally confirmed that it's not true. However, if you were afraid that Uwe Boll would direct the Halo movie, then you'll be glad to know that it's false. If you want so a few neat international posters for Doom, Corpse Bride, and Serenity then click here. Lastly, JoBlo dug up a pretty good clip from Saw II along with this creepy poster:



Now for some Monday Madness:

1. When you're stressed out, what do you do to relieve your stress?
Play video games. It doesn't have to be violent, just fun.
2. Are you normally a patient person, or is patience NOT one of your virtues?
I can be, but it really depends. I'm usually not with people who have no business using computers and computers, but in a lot of things I can be quite patient.
3. How many times a week do you blog?
Six days a week for your viewing please (or displeasure, I suppose).
4. How many memes a week do you participate in?
I try to do one every day, so six.
5. Describe the perfect day, weather-wise.
Sunny with a high of 75, a low of 65, and windy all day long.
6. Would you rather be too hot, or too cold?
I prefer the cold because then I don't sweat. I have more summer clothes than winter clothes, but it's easier to bundle up than to dress down.
7. Do you eat out often, and if so, what type of restaurants do you frequent?
Not really. I hate fast food though so it's often Chinese food or breakfast food unless someone else is picking up the tab.
8. If you could run your own business, what type of business would it be?
Probably a software company.

e-Paper Needs Steam

Do you ever have weekends where you get a lot done and yet you feel like you really didn't? I got some homework done and partied and went to the game and cooked for the coming week (egg curry, sausage, and mince meat) and went to the ACM potluck and vacuumed in addition to the normal stuff (church and working out), but I still didn't get all the homework done that I wanted. It makes the whole weekend bittersweet unfortunately, but I did have a lot of fun celebrating my friend JFo's birthday at least even though the UT v. Rice game was lackluster (61-10). Time to take a step away from the personal though: e-Paper is already pretty big in Japan but why isn't it popular stateside? I think not enough people really push for it, probably out of ignorance, which is understandable. Still, it seems archaic for us to use a format of publishing that has been used for hundreds of years and clearly can't withstand the test of time. e-Paper makes more sense than e-Books anyhow since it's more readable. Oh well, I guess the future will come someday.

I have too much homework left to dawdle with the tech news so this will be pretty brief. I'm starting to feel sorry for Microsoft at this point because all kinds of columnists are crapping on them for not being as exciting as they once were including the UK Times. The writer criticizes their new products for not being as innovative as what they were in the beginning, but I think given how old they are that they're doing pretty damn well. At least they're going to make the front end for Vista cross-platform. Toshiba has created fuel cell powered mp3 player prototypes, and what's significant about this is the huge gains in battery life given by the fuel cell. It's still a little far away from becoming available in your local Best Buy, but it's gotta start somewhere.

The fact that Just Like Heaven dominated the box office shows how weak the weekend was, but it's even worse when you find out that it brought in a flimsy $16.5 million. I was disappointed that Lord of War raked in less than $10 million because it was the best release of the weekend, but oh well, at least March of the Penguins is hanging on. AICN has two conflicting reviews for Final Fantasy: Advent Children, so I guess it all depends on how much of a fan you are of the series. That's basically it for the movie news though.

Who's up for some Unconscious Mutterings?

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Less filling::The beer commercial where the two girls fight over what's better about it
   
2. Glue::Horse
   
3. Surprise me::Party
   
4. Model::America's Next Top,
   
5. Fee::Money
   
6. Microphone::Mic
   
7. Choices::Decisions
   
8. To the bone::Bad
   
9. Run!::Forrest
   
10. Appeal::Court
    

I'm going to leave you with this postcard from PostSecret because, shamefully, it's indicative of how I am. Part of me feels sorry for them since I used to be like that and part of my just wonders why they don't go on a diet.

The Curse of Kai-Fu

Two thoughts before I get started. I've decided that I agree with everyone else: Wal-Mart sucks. I had to buy some NSC stuff from there and it's in the middle of nowhere first of all, and second of all their product selection is pretty craptacular. They also gave me a harder time than I thought with tax exemption. At least I got cheap gas there though ($2.61/gal). Second thought: it feels good when you've finished cooking. I made some egg curry and I must say that it came out pretty alright for a first effort at making it. It was also the first meal I cooked from scratch at my new place. The way home from Randalls made me feel pretty homey in Far West because this whole area is so nice and residential. Anyway, let me briefly discuss the main topic. This article doesn't say what my topic says, but it helps prove my point. The whole tiff with the former employee has drawn a lot of negative attention, and it's more than just one defection. People are now realizing a trend of M$ maintaining their empire rather that innovating, and that's really hurting them. It's no wonder why more people are switching to Google. If one company is stuck in the same place and the other one encourages you to delve into new ideas and you just came out of college, which would you want? They can definitely fix the situation, but do they really want to change their paradigm?

Take a good look..at your future. Just kidding, that controller is not going to impress gamers more than the Xbox 360 or PS3, but Nintendo seems to like it. It definitely sounds cool to use it as a wand, but more as a 3rd party peripheral than as a primary controller. Poor Nintendo, they're just taking too many risks at once with the Revolution. Macworld has an analysis up about why Apple chose Intel over AMD, and I think it's pretty dead-on to assume that it was the issue of low-voltage chips. If they want to revitalize their line of laptops, they definitely need them to last longer. Lastly, ZDNet has some figures regarding Firefox security vulnerabilities showing that the true test may be just around the bend for the IE rival. As more holes are found will they handle them better than M$ does with theirs or will they fall into a similar trap and, hence, lose some of their sex appeal? Stay tuned for more, kiddos.

I know that there was a must-see Harry Potter trailer yesterday, but another one has come online now from the UK. It has more cool footage from the movie, but it's a little more confusing plot-wise. AICN nabbed a great review for Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (from Chan-Wook Park of Oldboy fame), and though he can't say much given the number of spoilers in this series it does sound like it's just as good as the first one in the revenge trilogy. The dude who joined the Casino Royale project to fix up the script (Paul Haggis) spoke a little about how the style will be closer to Dr. No and the excitement of dealing with a younger Bond, so hopefully the screenplay turns out well. IGN has a little interview with Johnny Depp in which he talks a little bit about Corpse Bride, and it sounds like Tim Burton really had a clear vision for the movie (as always, I suppose). Lastly, if you're a Richard Kelly fan like me I'm sure that any Southland Tales news will entice you so here's some on-set pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar as a porn star.

Here's Friday's Feast:

Appetizer
Do your closer friends tend to be male or female? Why do you think that is?
I tend to be closer to my female friends, but my closer friends in general are men. It's probably because it's easier for meet guys since there's no intimidation factor or sexual tension (between me and her, not her and me).

Soup
If you could wake up tomorrow with a new talent, what would it be?
To talk normally like everyone else does!

Salad
Name a household cleaning item that you would recommend to others.
That Mean Green stuff. It's really pretty tough on stains and it's available at most dollar stores.

Main Course
What do you strive for in life?
Fulfillment, really. Sometimes it's pretty hectic, but most things are just means to an end. As long as I have some fun along the way I'm a happy camper.

Dessert
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how funny do you consider yourself?
I'd say a 6 or 7, maybe. Certain people find me funnier than others. In my defense, I have a very good sense of humor.

Why An IE Man Switched

The Student/Faculty Luncheon for NSC with the department chairs that I've been working on since school started is tomorrow and I'm kind of scared and excited. I just really hope it goes well or it's my ass and we lose respect from some important people. It's just one thing after another with NSC as I now have to do stuff for Round-up and then the Ice Cream Social, but it is kind of cool to have to make important decisions. Anyway, one of the guys who helped create Internet Explorer has defected to Firefox and he gave the five major reasons for his switch. He also gave a few problems with Firefox, but his bias is clear that the problems with IE outweigh them. The argument for switching has been made many times and I have a few friends who really harp on people when they use IE. So why did I mention this one? It's an interesting point of view but more importantly he gives some really good reasons that make plain sense. I'm surprised that no one has mentioned before how awkward working with Favorites are in IE and it's pretty ironic that for such an exploit laden program it keeps bugging you with security windows. The only one of his disputes with Firefox that I agree with is that the 'Find' box is at a bad place, but his other reasons seem kind of fluffy.

I consider the big news for geeks today to be that the Xbox 360 will be available in North America on November 22. That only leaves a waiting period of just over 2 months from now and it's not a good sign that advertising for launch titles hasn't really gotten anywhere yet. This is clearly they're "screw you" to Sony to payback the early release of the PS2 relative to the Xbox, but will they have enough quality titles to support the launch? At least Microsoft is admitting that they've been going about the Windows development process all wrong and are going about fixing it. Apple is slowly starting to throw its support behind video podcasting, which I hadn't previously heard of either but it's basically just a podcast with moving pictures behind it. Could this be a hint at a iPod Video? Lastly, if you're curious as to whether P2P trends have changed since the Grokster trial you should check out this survey presented in a pretty Flash format. It looks like P2P is still going strong.



Stop reading right now and watch the trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Back? Good. That was totally and unbelievably awesome, and one of the best trailers I've ever seen I think to pump one up for a movie. Another cool trailer that has finally come in its American form is for Memoirs of a Geisha, which is largely similar to the previous one but with a few extra scenes. That movie is also looking really good so far. If you're more in the mood for a comedy you should check out the clip that IGN has from Wallace & Grommit. Lastly, if you want to know more about which mutants will be featured in X3, click here. I won't reveal them here for those of you who don't want to know about them.

Now for the 3x Thursday:

1.Do you ever just take a couple of days and go radio silent from the world? Why/why not?
I usually don't listen to the radio except for Live 365 occasionally. Now that I have my Volvo I only listen to it in the car if there's something good on, otherwise I just switch to a CD.
EDIT: Apparently no radio means no cell phones or computers, and I don't think I've done that since before the Internet came out! Thanks for the clarification, Missy ;)

2. Do you ever make it a point to get outside your everyday life? What do you do? Where do you go?
I try to have fun on the weekends but that's about it. My life is too busy for me to get outside of it. I'm already too deep inside of it!

3. Do you like it when people can't get ahold of you? How does it make you feel?
Not really. I'm usually pretty accessible though. The worst incidents with people not getting hold of me is when they IM me and I'm away and their window is on a tab that I hadn't noticed in a while.

Watch Your Ears

I have a lot to get done before I go to bed tonight for EE 316 and CS 310 so I wonder how fast I can type this post. It should be quite a challenge for me to try to finish in 10 minutes if I want it to be done by 11:00 PM like I had previously planned. My life feels a lot more stressful now with NSC and ACM responsibilities (mostly the former), but I think once I get used to it all I'll feel better. Anyway, Wired had an alarming article about how younger generations have been getting increasingly worse hearing. Why? Concerts you say? Possibly, but their conclusion is that it's likely the increased usage of portable music players. Is there scientific evidence for this? Of course not. The article would like for you to think that, but there's no causal link. It is highly likely though. Keeping an earbud in your ear for an extended period of time can't be any better than playing video games for a long time without break or prolonged typing, but there could still be stuff about the ear we don't know. In any case, be careful the next time you walk out your door with your iPod or Zen or whatever you listen to.

The nerd news is best begun with the nerdiest thing for today, and today it's a sneak peek at JUnit 4. The fact that most of you don't know what that means probably makes me sad enough, but it's a testing framework for Java and the improvements to it are actually very useful for those of you developing Java-based applications. Google has decided to compete with Technorati with its own Blog Search, but so far it looks pretty lackluster. They need to up the features and UI if they hope to becomes as big as Technorati. Bill Gates actually spoke a little about Google in an interview with the Seattle PI. They claim that they're as big a threat as Novell or Lotus, but maybe they're underestimating the company with sex appeal? GM is going to do its fans a big favor and make new cars smarter by featuring monthly diagnostic checks automatically built into the car's OnStar system. It'll only be free for the first year, but it sounds like a worthwhile feature. Lastly, TiVo has voluntarily decided to institute broadcast flags so that certain programs can't be kept past a certain date and can't be transferred to a computer, and I think they're helping out these stations in exchange for alienating their customers.

Luckily, the movie news is very light today. If you like Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette (from The Sixth Sense), then there are a few new clips from Yahoo! Movies for you. If you're a fan of Scarlett Johansson, there's a really random clip from her upcoming movie (from Woody Allen) Match Point over here. Lastly, JoBlo has a few wallpapers from Into the Blue, and since there's never a bad time to show an Alba picture...



I'm going to go with QOTD II today:

What new or returning TV shows are you looking forward to viewing this season?
I'm really looking forward to Lost and Desperate Housewives. I'll also continue watching Smallville just to keep seeing Kristin Kreuk every week and since the season finale was pretty crazy.

Microsoft in a Jam

Mmmmm...Jam. Sorry, The Simpsons is on in the background. I think the big news today was that Microsoft has lost its lawsuit against Google over former employee Kai-Fu Lee. The judge will allow him to work at Google as long as he doesn't use information gleaned at Microsoft, and he also noted that he misled his former employer. In any case, I would compare this lawsuit's result to the Longhorn win last Saturday: they were all talk before the trial and now they probably feel a little embarrassed to have lost. They're also getting pummelled among pundits regarding the different versions of Windows Vista, including John Dvorak. Usually I despise his PC Magazine editorials, but this one is actually pretty funny and spot-on. The majority of these extra versions sound highly unnecessary. They might as well just make a version for each specialized use of a computer if they're going to do those 7 like porn watchers and gamers and such. I wonder if they feel that confusing the consumer with all this stuff will really help them out.

I want to start out the nerdy stuff with what I found most shocking: a study that has revealed the ability to trace what a person has typed based on a 15 minute audio recording of the typing. It's a pretty frightening prospect, but I think at this stage it's too much trouble for most identity thiefs. If you have a strong interest in security there's a pretty terse interview here with Alan Cox about the future of computer security. I think the most important development will be languages like Java that have made it harder to create holes, the hardest thing to fix though is the user's common sense. If you're really interested in Apple there's a spectacular roundtable discussion at SiliconValley.com about the direction they've been moving in. Lastly, if you were a fan of the now deceased TV Tome site, you may want to turn to the TV Wiki, which looks pretty promising.

It's not much, but we have a few more rough shots from the set of X3, and who doesn't love to see Hugh Jackman doing his thing? The theatrical trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will start showing in theaters in Friday, but I'm sure that many of you can't wait so here's a description from the few who have been able to see it so far. It sounds pretty cool and I'm really siked for the movie. Latino Review has reviewed the script for Beowolf and it looks like it will be a juicy R-rated flick, so keep your eyes peeled for more on this adaptation of a classic story. Lastly, there are so many rumors going on about James Bond that I've been skipping them, but MI6 is just so deadset on the producers of Casino Royale going back to Pierce Brosnan out of desperation that I felt that I should at least mention it.

Now for a rather difficult Ten on Tuesday meme:

10 Weird Facts About You
10. I can't fathom how people can eat mayonnaise. It's just oil and egg whites!
9. I don't think it's clever when people compare my name to Elton John.
8. It drives me crazy to see dirty dishes in the sink.
7. I actually budget my weekly expenses because I feel like I'll run out of money (since I'm not currently working), but I've yet to get even close to bankrupting myself.
6. Latin actually sounds cooler to me than Hindi.
5. In my late pre-teen years I went through a phase where I liked pop music. Ugh.
4. I pretend to not check out other people in between sets at the gym, but if I didn't then I'd be pretty bored.
3. I'm not trying to lose weight, but because I've kept myself on a strict diet before I still monitor my calorie intake.
2. Every little thing stresses me and if I don't get them over with quickly I feel overwhelmed.
1. Whenever I leave a place I always feel paranoid that I've left something behind.

Science Dumbed Down

I know it's a totally random picture, but the Daily Texan put it in today's paper and it answered the mystery of why the cops didn't break up the mob of Longhorn enthusiasts! I guess they're fans at heart as well. If you want to see more pictures click here. Anyway, the Guardian has an insightful editorial piece about why science gets a bad rap in the media because all stories are either wacky, scary, or "breakthroughs". It's a long read but if you skim past all the examples you get to the meat of the matter: most science articles don't divulge the actual facts of the matter. These writers assume that everyone is stupid and then churn out these misguided articles, and the few times they're actually headline material they're usually overblown. I just felt it was quite provocative and I wish something would be done about it.

Given that Sun Microsystems is still best-known for Java and has not made much of a dent in recent years in computer manufacturing I felt it was necessary to start out the tech news with news that they're creating a new line called Galaxy. They will run Solaris, Linux, and Windows interchangeable and use AMD chips rather than Sparc, which sounds like a definite step in the right direction. Meanwhile, Yahoo is making some changes of its own and hiring media correspondent Kevin Sites to produce a multimedia website featuring his coverage of wars around the world. Could Yahoo be on the verge of its own online "tv" network? There are already a lot of free shows online actually for geeks like me and though I haven't seen most of them I think I will start watching some of them soon. Lastly, Ars Technica pulled apart the Nano for an in-depth review and autopsy so it's kind of neat to skim over. I warn you though, the stress test may affect the monetarily impaired.

Not a whole lot going on in movies today either, but the best part is this trailer for Jesus Is Magic, a comedy by Sarah Silverman. The trailer is pretty raunchy as I'm sure the movie will be too, but it still looks funny. AICN nabbed a first review of the new Christian Bale movie, Harsh Times, and while it's not another high-profile movie it sounds like it's something pretty awesome. Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist got mixed reviews, but there seems to be a consensus that all the pieces fit together except the script (which is what's debatable). This all comes by way of the Toronto Film Festival of course. I find it strange that Mandy Moore and Justin Timberlake will both be in Richard Kelly's next film, Southland Tales, which is supposed to be pretty great. Maybe they're walk-on roles? Lastly, Leonardo DiCaprio will be FDR in Martin Scorcese's The Rise of Franklin Roosevelt, and I hope he does real well because FDR is my favorite president.

Now for some Monday Madness:

True or False...

1. I'm at my best in the early morning. False. I feel better about my day when I get up earlier, but my mind isn't too sharp.
2. I start each day with a healthy breakfast. True. My breakfasts vary between cereal, oatmeal, and bagels with jam plus some chocolate milk.
3. I'm always sure to get at least 7 hours of sleep each night. True. Except for extenuating circumstances, this is a must-have. I usually aim for 8 hours though.
4. I enjoy my job. N/A, but I enjoy my classes and I like programming.
5. I get along with most everyone. True. I'm not prone to making enemies.
6. I'm looking forward to the new season of tv shows this year. True. Lost and Desperate Housewives will be staples.
7. I make sure I take some time for myself every day. True. Not a whole lot of time, but whatever I can do.

How Dare You Doubt Texas

I'm of course referring to all the pundits who expected us to lose. I'll admit that I only had faith up to the last quarter when we weren't scoring for a while because of their solid defense, but when Young started making those crazy passes we all believed again. I knew that we faced worse odds last year and overcame and now we did it again. I watched the game at Moncrief Neuhaus and left immediately afterwards to head back to my car when I saw not only the Tower half lit Burnt Orange but fans going crazy on 21st. When I got to Guadalupe I knew there was no chance of getting home because it was at a complete standstill with 80-90% of the cars honking their carhorns (wearing Burnt Orange as well likely with nowhere to go) and passerbyers screaming and showing Horns in exchange. People were running across the drag with Texas and Longhorn fans, and one lane of Guadalupe was just a parade of fans. Mind you, this was less than 15 minutes after the end of the game. I went to some parties in West Campus with JFo and I've never seen so many people so friendly or so excited in my whole life. Every few minutes you heard "Texas..Fight!" or "OSU..Sucks!" and people were anxious to shake your hand or give you five or hug you. The rest of the night will be uninteresting to you, but some girl did pinch one of my nipples (trust me, it's not what you think or you'd hear more). I would talk about all the fun I had canoeing yesterday afternoon also on Town Lake with the new NSC members, but there's no room for it and it pales in comparison. Man I love Austin!

I'm going to start off my nerd news with this article that mentions a lack of practical courses in top Universities' CS programs. I personally feel that UT seems to have a good balance in letting you get involved with software engineering and understanding the science, but I'll admit that it does tip more towards theory. Nonetheless, I feel that the semantics are easier to acquire later than the underlying concepts. Maybe more CS majors should've been more focused on the Summer of Code than taking summer classes in AI. PC World has a great article, for once, on the most important things that hardware manufacturers don't tell you and is a must-read for those of you interested in buying a new computer anytime soon. The Observer has a pretty good editorial explaining why the Rokr, upon closer examination, isn't what we all had hoped for. This would be a great time for a competitor to step in and dominate. Lastly, Microsoft is really pushing it by deciding to release not two, not three, not four, but seven versions of Windows Vista, presumably to match the Seven Deadly Sins I suppose. It is as unnecessary as it sounds.

There's really not a whole lot to say in the world of movies this weekend. However, the box office stunned us all when it showed The Exorcism of Emily Rose on top with a cool $30.2 million on a pretty random weekend. They've already turned a profit on a movie with no especially notable qualities to it and only lukewarm reviews, which is more than The Island did (and has not made that much money so far). I'm also impressed that Wedding Crashers and March of the Penguins are clinging to the top ten. The only other thing of note is that AICN has a rather positive review of the Wallace & Grommit movie, which looked kind of funny in its previews so hopefully it is funny.

Before I conclude I want to mention that things are getting heated up even more with the video game debate. Political figures like Senator Hillary Clinton are aiming to make it a federal offense to sell rated M games to minors, which seems like trying to kill an ant with a bazooka. California is leading the cross-state upheaval to impose penalties for selling video games to minors with a law that has passed their legislature and is now awaiting and action movie star's approval. My opinion is that we're running a double standard here. Why not jail people for selling rated R DVDs to minors or music with Parental Advisory stickers?

Now for some Unconscious Mutterings, as usual:

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Related::Relatives
   
2. Soothing::Sounds
   
3. Flashback::Flashdance
   
4. Turmoil::Pillaging
   
5. Immense::Large
   
6. Guitar::Classical
   
7. Nonsense::Malarky
   
8. Blame::Scapegoat
   
9. Childlike::Thinking
   
10. Duff::Hilary
    

Linux's Maturity

If you're also going to Austin City Limits could you let me know? Not only do I want to meet up you with there so I'm not walking around alone like a weirdo but also I'm trying to find out if anyone else is interesting in carpooling since parking costs so much. A lot of people who are really pumped about open source software may have you believe that Linux is getting to enterprise IT structure at an alarming rate, but it may actually be another five years before it hits the mainstream. It's doing pretty well on servers, but on the desktop it's just an issue of the costs of migration to it, and it is a pretty big leap of faith for many businesses. I think Linux is really ideal for a network environment where it's fast and affords much control. One of the most outspoken open source advocates, Eric Raymond, was actually offered a job by Microsoft. He strongly turned it down and actually rebutted that he was their worst nightmare! He was probably a little nicer than that on the phone, but he sent them a pretty harsh but funny e-mail. I just wonder why they wanted to hire him.

Speaking of Microsoft, it turns out that Windows Vista may have some pretty beefy requirements. The problem with that is that when you increase the complexity of a kernel you're inviting more trouble on yourself, but it does have room to do very well I suppose. Hot on the trail of Apple's iPod Nano announcement yesterday, Sony decided to up the ante with their new line of smaller Walkmen. I don't really see anything about them that makes the devices stand out, but rather it shows that Sony has really gone down in quality with the age of digital music. Lastly, in a surprisingly awesome move, Cartoon Network has actually decided to make Adult Swim programming available online on Friday nights when the shows are usually not on. It will be available to stream from 11:00 PM-6:00 AM EST and sounds like it's the step in the right direction for cable companies. Look for it on their site next Friday.

It's kind of weird to see Paul Bettany in costume as Silas for Da Vinci Code, but I think he'll do well in the role. That shot is actually from his own site. If you want to see some new, neat posters from A Scanner Darkly then head to JoBlo.com. If you're more interested in Saw II though then head over to Yahoo! Movies where they have the first teaser trailer for the movie and it looks to be in the same style as the original. It looks like the Silent Hill movie is approaching the end of its shoot and I'm really hoping that Christophe Gans does a lot of good for the movie stylistically. Those of you disappointed with the weak DVD for Sin City can now put the Special Edition on your Christmas list as it also features an extended cut of the movie and a graphic novel from the series. It'll definitely be on my wish list. Lastly, Family Guy fans won't want to miss out on IGN's interview with Alex Borstein in which she talks a lot about the Stewie DVD and you may learn a few things like how long the animation takes to complete (9 months).

And now, you know you want Friday's Feast:

Appetizer
Who is the easiest person for you to talk to?
I'm not actually sure. I guess either my brother or my friend Ketan.

Soup
If you could live in any ancient city during the height of the quality of its society and culture, which one would you choose?
I'd probably go for Rome because their practices seem radically different from today's world or even ancient Greece to see a tragedy performed live. You don't see too many of those nowadays.

Salad
What is the most exciting event you've ever witnessed?
Have I really witnessed anything that exciting? I guess when we beat Oklahoma State last year after being down by so much by haltime. The whole second half was just energy-packed.

Main Course
If you were a celebrity, what would you do for a publicity stunt?
Challenge another celebrity to a Chubby Bunny contest.

Dessert
What do you consider the ideal age to have a first child?
Probably 28-30. Assuming I get married I wouldn't force my wife to have a child that early, but it seems like it would be easier to do it sooner than later if you want kids.

Multiple Unveilings

I think one of the things I like best about Apple is their power to make huge waves in technology through big risks. They took a huge step today in moving to the iPod Nano to replace the iPod Mini, which is not only smaller but relies on flash memory rather than a solid state hard drive. It also features a color screen and longer battery life at the same old price ($200 or $249). But wait, that's not all. They finally also announced that the Moto Rockr will be the harbinger of iTunes music on cell phones and is capable of holding up to 100 songs. Hitachi also recently broke a barrier by releasing a 500 GB hard drive. It sounds pretty good, but I doubt it'll get too popular until the price goes down. The last unveiling was Logitech's smart mouse, which is sorta neat but 10 buttons is too many. It can basically communicate with you information from the computer as well as sense various things (like wireless interference and the computer status) hence being smart, but they may need to tone it down before it catches on.

I think a small group of nerds somewhere did the wave when they found out that Google hired Vinton Cerf away from MCI as Chief Internet Evangelist (whatever that means). It's really just cool that the guy who invented TCP/IP is working a true technology firm rather than a telecommunications company, which seems like an odd place for him (though he did also create MCI Mail). Another acquisition today was News Corporation's purchase of IGN. The purchase signifies how much Internet advertising has really grown in importance. Lastly, Take Two will rerelease San Andreas next week with its former Mature rating, but many retailers actually won't carry it because they're sell outs who bow down to the almighty media. The whole controversy was ridiculous in the first place in my opinion.

A lot of what I have today in movies is multimedia. Moviefone put up some random clips from Serenity to remind you that the movie is coming very soon. The clips are mostly just dialogue, so if you're seeking action then that's the wrong place. They also put up an extended clip from Corpse Bride showcasing the awesome animation and I, for one, am still pumped about it. IGN has a video interview with two great actors doing a movie that sounds beneath them (The Man), Eugene Levy and Sam Jackson. I guess we can still hope that it'll turn out well, but I just love hearing them talk in the interviews. MTV Films now has the rights to make a film out of the recent video game The Suffering, and while the game had a cinematic storyline I'm concerned that they'll make it pretty cheesy on the big screen. I guess we'll know more soon enough. Lastly, AICN has a great review of Lord of War so be sure to check it out if your a Nicholas Cage fan like me.

Now for the 3x Thursday meme:

1. Do you think you're a fairly efficient person? What is your definition of 'efficient'?
I'd say that I usually am despite occasional departures due to AIM. I would say efficient is getting as much as you can out of your days.

2. Does it bug you when you feel someone is wasting your time? How do you handle it?
It does a little bit, but when it's a friend of mine I don't care as much. There's no wasted time really among friends, and in any case usually everything happens for a reason. I forgot my workout gloves and lock today at home so I had to go home before going to the gym, which meant I got there around 6:00PM as opposed to like 4:15PM, and I ended up running into an old friend from high school. So I guess you never know.

3. What happens when you have to work on someone else's timetable? Does it drive you crazy when they don't do things the way you would, or are you able to adapt pretty well?
I can usually adapt to it pretty well. I'm not so anal that I have to have things done exactly my way so long as they're done well.

Kids and the Lama

It somehow slipped my mind yesterday to mention that I now hold a ticket to the Dalai Lama speech here in Austin, for which tickets were distributed yesterday morning at 7:00 AM. My room mate happened to be on campus around 1:00 AM when a friend called him and told him to come stand in line, which was already at WC Hogg (it started at the Union). For non-UT students this means that about 1,000 people were in line. By 7:00 AM the line was over 2,000 people long and went to Jester. Someone else actually posted pictures. It moved fast and through him I got my ticket as well as our tickets to the Rice football game since I waited at the draw line simultaneously (which didn't matter since I still got crappy seats). Anyway, I'm pretty pumped about seeing one of the holiest men in the world in person. The other part of my confusing title is regarding this interview with Tim Berners-Lee, the man behind the Internet, in which he mentions that the creativity of our children will power the Web in years to come. I think it's an amazingly true statement given how much exposure kids have to computers in today's day and age. Back when I was small it was just learning BASIC or trying to use Telnet or learning DOS commands, and now it must be totally advanced for them. I think despite their laziness that they can come up with some great stuff.

I'm going to start out the tech news with byfar the geekiest item today: the first episode in the completely online show NerdTV. It's like Charlie Rose but for major figures in computing and this first one features veteran Mac systems programmer Andy Hertzfeld. It's a little dry but quite informative. Microsoft has finally lost its mind and has decided to sue the EU for sanctions imposed against the company, and I think they're really taking things too far. It can't possibly be worth all this trouble. Lastly, ZDNet has put up a pretty good article about responsibility disclosure with regard to flaws in companies' software. The specific incident they address is at Microsoft, but I'm sure it's an issue at many other big companies as well and is a bigger deal as identity theft becomes more and more serious.

What you are looking at is actually the first official shot of Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) from Superman Returns. You can see more new pictures from the movie at Latino Review and join in the mounting excitement for the movie. If you can't get enough of pictures though there are some new ones from Corpse Bride over at IGN. What's more important though is that we finally have a couple of new pictures from Ghost Rider for your viewing pleasure and the race for everyone to make a comic book movie continues. Lastly, we now know that the next Hannibal Lecter movie will be called The Lecter Variation based on the upcoming book from Thomas Harris Behind the Mask and filming should begin very very soon. As you can surmise from the book title, this is all about the background behind the good doctor and what made him what he is in the movies you've come to know and love.

Given that Friday (of Wednesday Mind Hump fame) is still recovering from Katrina I'm going to do the Question of the Day II again:

If you could be anyone's mojo, whose would you want to be, and why?
Besides Austin Powers? Probably Brad Pitt because it must work pretty well given how many women are automatically attracted to him. To have that kind of power would be surreal.

Critiquing HCI

I only abbreviated in the interest of keeping the title brief; I'm not being arrogant about acronyms because I didn't know this one myself. It stands for human-computer interaction, and one concerned put up his opinions on the top 8 reasons why it has gone to the dumps. Of course I wouldn't be citing them if they weren't worthwhile thoughts as he does make some valid points. An OS like Mac OS X is awesome for beginners, but I don't like that level of simplicity at a certain point. It's not that I'd prefer the extreme of what Linux provides, but it really should grow with you. One of his best points is the micromanagement involved in day-to-day operations on your computer in that you have to divert your focus to do different things or face bad results (as I have encountered many a time with closing a window where I thought its 'X' button was). Hotkeys are a start, but we really should have more. If that stuff interests you then click the link and read more about it all.

I'm going to start out the remaining tech stuff with the funniest article today: one guy's account of how he failed the Turing test. I'd consider that a must-read just because of how hilarious it is and it's basically just that this dude got put on some weird AIM lists so people think he's a robot and they don't believe him when he claims to be human. I've actually been on the other end of the situation while playing Counter-strike last year and my room mate was convinced that our opponent was a bot. Speaking of games, the New York Times made a good point today in portraying game studios' concern that World of Warcraft is sucking away a lot of business from normal games and even other MMOs (like Matrix Online). It really is scary the hold it has on people, but I think it'll end when consoles start impressing people like they used to. The last thing I wanted to mention was this survey of salaries for jobs in the computer industry, which shows that CS isn't as unprofitable as the media would have you believe. I'm sure plenty of people make well over those numbers though if they're smart enough. Just something to entice my fellow computer geeks.

If you want to see more pictures from the Goblet of Fire such as that then you'll want to head over to JoBlo where they got several new ones. I was tempted to show you the new Serenity poster instead, but I've already put up so many of those. Yahoo! Movies has the trailer up for Ang Lee's next movie, Brokeback Mountain, and it looks like phenomenal look inside the kinds of challenges homosexuals have to face with some great actors at the helm also. Casino Royale, which many of you know has really gotten nowhere, may be postponed by Sony Pictures given that it's supposed to start shooting in 12 weeks, and I wonder if it would come back anytime soon if they were to do that. Lastly, in a strange twist Fun with Dick and Jane is going to undergo 5 weeks of reshoots for 40 rewritten pages from the script in order to get more Jim Carrey schtick. This either means that they're making it better or it sucked so much that they needed more stupid comedy to fill the gaps.

Before I conclude I just want to mention that I agree with much of what Kanye West said during the telethon. I suppose his chosen venue was questionable, but why is it that the people who are looting are always shown as African-Americans? And why is Bush so much more concerned with Iraq than his own citizens?

Now for the Ten on Tuesday meme:

10 Great Love Songs
10. "My All" - Mariah Carey
9. "When Can I See You Again" - Babyface
8. "Besame Mucho"
7. "I'll Make Love to You" - Boyz II Men
6. "In The Still of the Night" (I've heard too many versions to know the original)
5. "Can't Help Falling in Love" - Elvis Presley?
4. "With or Without You" - U2
3. "Love Me Tender" - Elvis Presley
2. "Unchained Melody" - Everly Brothers
1. "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" - Tom Jones?

I don't know if they all count as love songs, but I would classify them as such myself. I'm sure I'm leaving some good songs out, but that's what I came up with off the top of my head.

EDIT: Upon reading other people's I realized that I left out "Here Without You" (3 Doors Down), "I Knew I Loved You" (Savage Garden), "You and Me" (Lifehouse), "The Way You Look Tonight" (Frank Sinatra), "Autumn Leaves", and "Iris" (Goo Goo Dolls). So consider those my honorable mentions.

The Annoying, Greedy Next-Gen

Wave goodbye to the last holiday we have until Thanksgiving, Longhorns! At least you only have to wait 4 days until the big Ohio State game, so be thankful for that. A really striking article today was Gabe Newell's thoughts on game development for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. This guy is the founder of Valve so you can imagine his slant towards the PC console, which for those of you keeping score at home has been screwed up the ass for quite a few years now thanks to pirates who take away a lot of profits unless you're Valve and you pump out revolutionary games like Half-Life 2 or you're Sierra (The Sims). Back to the point though, he makes great points about how the new consoles are more concerned with beating each other and maintaining a chokehold on the industry rather than making it easier to make games. Wouldn't it make more sense to make a console that is easier to develop for (and cheaper, mind you) so that you can sell more games and get more royalties rather than try to lock out your competitors and produce really pricey hardware? You would think so, but both camps are greedy (Nintendo hasn't said enough about the Revolution to have any say yet). For those of you keen on a game development career for the glamour this is something to think on about regarding how crazy the industry really is.

There's very little tech news today, as expected given the holiday, but I'll start it off with some outsourcing buzz. There's rumors that Microsoft is planning to send 1,000 jobs to China, but they claim that it doesn't mean that they'll lay off people in Redmond. Much of the article actually drones on about the Google lawsuit, but I'm just surprised to see communist China rising as a hub for cheap labor. The BBC is running a great article about how new initiatives in several countries for national ID cards may be useless as identity thieves get even smarter about how to use your money. They don't seem to offer an immediate solution, but reliance on technology surely isn't the answer.

The only thing to speak of in movies today is the box office figures from the 3-day weekend showing Transporter 2 on top with an impressive $20.3 million considering that the original only made like $25 million total. It knocked The 40-Year-Old Virgin to number 2 with $16.6 million, and The Constant Gardener clutched onto the #3 spot with a respectable $10.8 million since it opened in only 1, 346 theaters. If you're really desperate for movie news you can instead check out this highlight reel of Longhorn quarterback Vince Young and prepare to be awed.

There are a couple of other things I did want to cover. I find it curious that the housing boom may continue stronger than ever despite the hurricane as victims try to settle in new homes thanks to lower mortgage rates (in anticipation of a possible pause on Fed rate hikes). Will the bubble ever burst? Since Katrina is such a priority for Bush he's deciding to give William Rehnquist's job to John Roberts, who will probably be confirmed and I think will be better (read: less conservative) than former Chief Justice Rehnquist.

I've decided to try the Question of the Day II meme this week:

How did you come up with the name of your blog? Does it mean anything, or is it nonsense?
I started it out as wanting to be a total tech blog, but I didn't want a boring name like "The Tech Vent" or something like that. Just kidding, Ronak. But seriously, I wanted something kind of catchy, and I definitely wanted it to mock/celebrate my being a nerd, so this is the best I came up with. Of course it evolved to also carry movie news and a few other random things pertaining to current events, but I think it still maintains the same original objective.

Not So Late Registration

"Why everything that's supposed to bad make me feel so good
Everything they told me not to is exactly what I would
Man I tried to stop man I tried the best I could
But (You make me smile with my heart)" - 'Addiction', Kanye West

I pictured this weekend as partying hardcore, but unfortunately it was exactly the opposite. Saturday night was the game of course, and I attended the Louisiana-Lafayette mowdown where the 60-3 score was almost sad. By the end of the 3rd quarter I was actually hoping they'd make it past midfield. Friday night I decided to check out the Arboretum and it's just a gorgeous area of town. It's a really nice shopping area with lots of younger adults and I bought the new Kanye West album. As you may be able to guess from the topic I totally love it. I liked The College Dropout a lot, but it seemed like a selection of songs held the whole thing up. This time around though it's pretty evenly spread. Even the skits are pretty funny! Critics have been unfairly harsh on it, but you can listen for yourself. It really has something for everyone. Songs like "Roses" and "Hey Mama" are really heartfelt, then there's "Touch The Sky" and "Gold Digger" to dance to, or you can check out "Drive Slow" or "Late" for something a bit slower. His collaboration with Adam Levine, "Heard Em Say", is as awesome as you would expect and one of my favorite tracks is "Addiction" for the same reason as I like many of the other songs: it's the perfect beat for the song and it just melds together so well that you almost forget it's hip hop. This album is a must-own and definitely has broken some barriers.

Hurricane Katrina is still sitting uneasily on the minds of thousands upon thousands of not just Texans but Americans in general, and nerds are no exception. A couple of technology groups banded together to test out a sonic laser that can aim sound precisely for thousands of feet. Given that all the communications in that region is mostly offline it'll definitely help for announcements and stuff. All the remaining tech stuff is actually related to next generation DVD players. Toshiba may have to delay its HD-DVD player release into 2006 in order to get the most demand out of it, which is good news for Sony since it may cost $100 per PS3 to outfit them with Blu-ray players. The players are good because they're backwards compatible with DVDs and CDs, and the longer Sony waits the cheaper they may possible get. Plus, it's attractive to the movie industry because those who tinker with the technology could have their player remotely disabled.

There isn't any real movie news but there were a couple of important regular news developments today. Chief Justice Rehnquist, known for being pretty staunchly conservative, died over the weekend. This was a big surprise considering how recently Justice O'Connor stepped down, but he had been sick for a while and he was 80. Now to see how Bush responds. Job growth figures from August are now in and they look good showing even better figures than the previous summer months and bringing in the lowest unemployment rate in a few years. Let's hope that energy prices don't put too harsh of a dent into those numbers.

Now for some Unconscious Mutterings:

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Julie::Hsu
   
2. Emotional::Rollercoaster
   
3. Head of household::Dad
   
4. Diva::Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DiVAS)
   
5. Devastation::Katrina
   
6. Business or pleasure::Trip
   
7. Crown::Royal
   
8. Eastern::, Middle
   
9. Buzzed::Tipsy
   
10. Officer::Law
    

P.S. I knew I forgot something: TCU BEAT OU!!! This means that next weekend's game may be our hardest and most important of the season against OSU. Hang in there Longhorn fans.

Let The Mudslinging Begin

"At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: "Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill Google." - supposed testimony from Kai-Fu Lee

A little explicit, but it just doesn't have the same effect without the expletives. Is Steve Ballmer really stupid enough to say that? That's what the rumors are according to some leaked court briefs. I think he'd say something along those lines, but that probably is a little exaggerated. Nonetheless, I thought it was pretty funny. That's not it though, Creative is taking a cheap shot at Apple by claiming that they're violating a recent patent that Creative gained regarding the succession of menus to select a song or album. This smells of desperation to me, and so does Microsoft's lawsuit against Google over the loss of an employee. I think it's sad when companies turn to litigation to make up for their lack of ingenuity. There are many reasons why the Creative Zen has so many less users than the iPod, and one of them is that every other person probably hasn't even heard of it. I guess in such cutthroat industries it's inevitable, but I wonder if it'll ever end. Of course maybe Ballmer hates Google because of their book-burning initiative.

You must be tired of hearing about those three companies by now, but I actually have more on all three of them. Microsoft has decided to not release future versions of Services for Unix, but I can't understand why. I think they wanted to have it built into Windows instead? *shrugs* It turns out that Apple machines are slower than Linux machines because of the Mac OS X platform rather than the PowerPC architecture, which then makes the move to Intel strange. Just something to ponder over the weekend. Google is actually opening up its Google Print project to foreign submissions, which means that they're trying to expand more internationally. Lastly, the spread of mobile phone viruses has led to the creation of anti-viral software for the Bluetooth phones. You can expect it to be in stores soon.

I'm going to start off the movie news with my concern for the progress of 21, which now has director Shawn Levy on board, but I wanted someone better at the help with Kevin Spacey in the movie. In case you haven't heard, it tells the tale of those famous MIT kids who ripped off Vegas casinos with some smart techniques. Another strange thing today was a weak rumor that Bishop may be in X3, but it seems pretty farfetched and he's not a good character to bring in so soon. If you want to see something cool though there's a new video journal entry at the Blue Tights Adventure with a neat model being used in Superman Returns. Lastly, there's a script review for Die Hard 4 over here for the action fan in us all. It sounds like a mixed bag, but there's still a lot of time left.

This week, I'm going to try out the Friday Fandango:

Some people claim that everyone is a “little gay”... let’s pretend this is true and list five people* of the same sex that you’d “do” if you were so inclined. Yeah, and let’s pretend your Significant Other doesn’t mind you doing the freaky fandango with someone else.
I think I'm straight enough to answer this question and not sound gay. I'd say Brad Pitt, Kanye West, Chris Martin, Chris Cornell, and Brandon Boyd. What can I say, I have a soft spot for musicians. The fact that Michelle Branch can sing and play guitar makes her much hotter than she already is.

Before I end, I want to share a couple of highlights from the NSC exec retreat on Sunday:

  

Glitz Over Gameplay

I think that my efforts to make my blog entries shorter has been a success so far, what do you think? Please comment and share your thoughts. I just feel that this way more people will read entire posts and I can get more work done. The topic for today is rooted in video games and is inspired by quite a sensational article in a growing concern today: the lack of truly innovative games. There have been a few recently that are pretty creative, but a lot of them have been just fodder for marketing schemes. The main idea he's trying to hit is that the game industry has gotten caught in a cycle where they have to make hollow big hits in order to take maybe one or two risks, and as a result many of them have been taking less and less risks. Instead, they're trying to stay atop competitors in graphics. It's sad when people with fresh ideas are left in the dark in any field, and to see it happening in video games is pretty sad given just how much of a spread over age groups there is. Everything is more complicated than it sounds, of course, but some of us have to dream of a utopian society if we ever want to reach it I suppose.



If you had to guess what car has that interior, you probably wouldn't guess a new Mazda concept car, but it's true. What's really fascinating is that the Sassou would operate using a USB flash drive as the key, which you could also use to store music and driving directions. Now that's something I'd like to see soon. The bigger issue right now though is gas prices, and the New York Times has a great rant on how unprepared the energy industry has been for such a downturn. I wish I could say that in the next few weeks they could restore production in that part of the Gulf and lower prices, but it seems unlikely and I think many people are already clamoring for government intervention. Sadly, they elected a conservative Republican. Lastly, if you want to want to correct some myths on the antagonism between Microsoft and Linux, check out this interview that sheds much light on the situation.

I'm going to kick off the movie news with the freaky stuff. IGN has some pretty creepy pictures from Saw II to satisfy the sadist within you. Yahoo! Movies put up a couple of clips from The Exorcism of Emily Rose, but it unfortunately highlights the scary parts rather than the courtroom drama core. AICN has a couple of reviews from a screening of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but they're both pretty contradictory. It sounds like fans of the book will like it better though. Lastly, the Queen of the hotties, Jessica Alba, has signed on for a thriller called Awake about being awake but paralyzed during surgery. It may not sound good so far, but we really don't have much plot to go on yet.

Now for the 3x Thursday:

1. Do you think national holidays (President's Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, etc) are a joke? Why/Why not?
Not really. I think they're more like well-deserved breaks for the working class. Labor Day and Thanksgiving are the only holidays UT students get this Fall, and we need them both.

2. What's your favorite national holiday? Why?
Probably Thanksgiving because it's an ideal amount of time to spend away from school to chill with family.

3. If you had to come up with a national holiday of your own, what would it be?
What worthwhile dates are left to decree holidays?

Bonus Question for Comments: Are you doing anything for Labor Day this year?
I'm going to plan my weekend as it goes along (i.e. I'm a loser and am hoping to find people to hang out with). I am going to the UT game Saturday night for sure though.